ON THURSDAY morning they were just a bunch of comedians known
only to their Australian viewers and the many politicians they've
left red-faced.

But by yesterday, the Chaser team's fame had spread around the
world.

Footage of their fake motorcade stunt, in which black vehicles
with bonnet-mounted Canadian flags were driven with embarrassing
ease into APEC security zones, was shown on foreign networks such
as Fox News, NBC and CBS. CNN played excerpts from old
Chaser stunts. Even a television network in Lexington,
Kentucky was running the story.

"A prank by a TV comedy crew has turned into an international
incident and it could end up making a laughing stock of the entire
[APEC] security machine," said a straight-faced newsreader on
America's ABC TV network. "$160 million was spent to keep
dignitaries safe, and a convoy of actors got within yards of
President Bush's hotel."

The story was the fourth-most read article on the BBC website,
which carried the headline, "Sydney 'ring of steel' breached".

Eleven people, including Chas Licciardello, who was dressed as
Osama bin Laden, and the Chaser's executive producer, Julian
Morrow, were arrested and charged with entering a restricted area
without justification under the new APEC legislation.

The NSW Police Commissioner, Andrew Scipione, said the group
were lucky not to have been shot.

"I'm angry, I'm very angry that this stunt happened. It was a
very dangerous stunt," he said.

"The reality is they put security services in a position where
they might have had to take an action no one would want. We have
snipers deployed around the city. They weren't there for show; they
mean business - that's what they were there for."

But most Sydneysiders appear to have taken the Chaser stunt in
good humour. Almost 90 per cent of the 28,451 people who voted on
an smh.com.au poll said they found it funny.

Yesterday, the team was at it again, three members replicating
their colleagues' headline-grabbing stunt.

Police stopped the trio - Craig Reucassel, Chris Taylor and
Dominic Knight - in the CBD as they walked down the street with
black cardboard limousines strapped to their backs. The cars were
decorated with Canadian flags and had paper-plate wheels.

Knight, who is also a columnist with the Herald's
website, said the stunt was like re-enacting a scene from Romper
Room.

"We established that APEC is safe from the scourge of cardboard
motorcades," he said.

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